Isnin, 25 Februari 2013

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Exim Bank plans to sell US$1b sukuk

Posted: 25 Feb 2013 05:30 PM PST

Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd (Exim Bank) plans to sell a debut Islamic bond in the global market, the second by an Asian company in 2013 after a two-year absence.

The state-owned trade finance provider invited proposals from banks to arrange US$1 billion of dollar-denominated debt for a possible second-quarter offering, said three people familiar with the deal.

The lender aims to increase the proportion of Shariah loans to 30 per cent of the total in two years from 20 per cent now, Chief Executive Officer Adissadikin Ali said in an interview yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, declining to comment on the potential issuance.

Exim Bank will become only the fourth Asian corporate to ever tap dollar sukuk investors after Malaysia's Sime Darby Bhd, the world's biggest palm-oil producer, sold US$800 million of notes in January. The government's US currency Islamic bonds maturing in 2021 yield 2.92 per cent, compared with 3.55 per cent for similar ringgit debt.

"More Asian companies will tap the dollar sukuk market given the pace of regional growth and overseas expansion," Mohamed Azahari Kamil, the Kuala Lumpur-based chief executive officer of Asian Finance Bank Bhd, the Malaysian unit of Qatar Islamic Bank SAQ, said in an interview yesterday. "Islamic borrowing costs for well-rated corporates are cheap."

A sale would be the Kuala Lumpur-based institution's second foray into the international debt arena. It sold US$500 million of five-year notes that don't comply with the Quran's ban on interest in May at a coupon rate of 2.875 per cent. Those securities are rated A3 by Moody's Investors Service and A- by Fitch Ratings, the fourth-lowest investment grades and the same ranking as the sovereign.

The 2.875 per cent bonds due in 2017 yielded 1.91 per cent yesterday, down 11 basis points, or 0.11 percentage point, from the end of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Bloomberg Malaysian Sukuk Ex-MYR Index of foreign-currency Islamic debt listed in the Southeast Asian nation rose 0.1 per cent last week to 111.682 and is little changed in 2013.

Exim Bank started offering Shariah-compliant loans in 2009 and plans to increase total lending by 30 per cent in 2013 under a five-year initiative introduced in 2011, Adissadikin said. The company is getting enquiries from Malaysian companies operating overseas that are looking to expand, he said.

"Since we aren't a deposit-taking bank, we need to consider sukuk to raise funds," Adissadikin said. "This option will allow us to pass on the benefits of lower borrowing costs to our customers so they can be competitive."-- Bloomberg

US stocks close sharply lower

Posted: 25 Feb 2013 03:24 PM PST

NEW YORK: US stocks closed sharply lower Monday amid concerns that Silvio Berlusconi's strong showing in the Italian election could force a coalition government and spark fresh instability in the eurozone.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 216.40 points (1.55 percent) to 13,784.17, the index's biggest single-day drop since November.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 27.75 (1.83 percent) to 1,487.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 45.57 (1.44 percent) to 3,116.25.

Equity markets rose early as the Italian election appeared heading for a center-left victory.

But as the hours passed, a tight contest for control of the Italian Senate raised the possibility of a coalition including former premier Berlusconi.

Financial markets fear that his return to power could endanger Italy's recent fiscal reforms and revive doubts about the euro zone.

"There was a surprise over the Italian election," said Mace Blicksilver of Marblehood Asset Management.

Some analysts also expressed concerns about the effect of US budget cuts that could take effect Friday if an agreement in Washington is not reached.

Among the biggest losers were Bank of America (-3.7 percent), Home Depot (-2.6 percent) and General Electric (-2.5 percent).

Home improvement retailer Lowe's sank 4.8 percent despite reporting earnings that bested analyst expectations.

Natural gas giant Chesapeake Energy fell 6.8 percent after it announced it was selling a stake in some natural gas properties to Chinese company Sinopec for $1.0 billion.

US shares of British oil giant BP dropped 3.4 percent as a much-watched trial began Monday in New Orleans over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Barnes & Noble surged 11.5 percent after the company's founder and largest shareholder, Leonard Riggio, announced that he was interested in buying the company's retail assets. -- AFP

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Obama warns governors about sequester - USA TODAY

Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:53 AM PST

President Obama sought to recruit the nation's governors Monday in his sequestration battle with Congress, telling them that $85 billion in automatic budget cuts will cripple economic progress in their states.

Set to start Friday, the sequestration cuts will lead to fewer teachers, reduced medical care, and idle defense workers in all 50 states, Obama told members of the National Governors Association at the White House.

"The longer those cuts are in place, the bigger their impact will be," Obama said.

The president urged the state executives -- particularly the Republicans -- to lobby members of Congress to avoid the sequestration with a new deal to help reduce the national debt of more than $16 trillion.

Obama wants a debt reduction deal that includes both budget cuts and higher taxes on the wealthy, in the form or closing loopholes and deductions.

Republicans oppose any tax increase, saying Obama got higher tax rates on the wealthy as part of last month's "fiscal cliff" deal.

Beyond the sequester, Obama told the governors he wants to be their "partner" on two major legislative items, infrastructure and education.

Repairing and expanding the nation's system of roads, bridges, tunnels, railways and airports should be a bi-partisan endeavor, Obama said.

As for education, Obama said he wants states to help him achieve his goal of preschool for all of America's children.

Top British Cardinal Resigns After Accusations of 'Inappropriate Acts' - New York Times

Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:37 AM PST

VATICAN CITY — Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric announced his resignation on Monday, a day after being accused of "inappropriate acts" with priests, saying he would not attend the conclave to elect a new pope.

The cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, said that he had submitted his resignation months ago, and the Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had accepted it on Feb. 18. However, the timing of the announcement — a day after news reports of alleged abuse appeared in Britain —suggested that the Vatican had encouraged the cardinal to stay away from the conclave.

The move is bound to raise questions about other cardinals. It comes amid a campaign by some critics to urge Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles not to attend the conclave because of his role in moving priests accused of abuse.

It also comes just days after the Vatican Secretariat of State issued a harsh statement against recent media reports —including ones alleging a gay sex scandal inside the Vatican —that cardinals should not be conditioned by external pressures, including from the media, when they vote for the next pope. There are expected to be some 115 cardinals at the gathering.

Vatican watchers said that Cardinal O'Brien's decision not to attend the conclave was rare.

"It's quite unprecedented," said Sandro Magister, a Vatican expert with the Italian weekly L'Espresso. "He made it clear that his resignation came under the pressure of the accusations. His certainly isn't a frequent case and hasn't happened in conclaves in recent memory."

Cardinal O'Brien's announcement came a day after The Observer newspaper reported that four men had made complaints to the pope's diplomatic representative in Britain, Antonio Mennini, that reached him the week before Pope Benedict XVI announced Feb. 11 that he would be stepping down as of Feb. 28.

The Observer said that the accusations, which dated back to the 1980s, had been forwarded to theVatican.

Last week, Cardinal O'Brien drew different headlines, telling the BCC that the next pope should consider abandoning the church's insistence on priestly celibacy, and suggested that it might be time for the papal conclave to choose a new pontiff from Africa or Asia, where church membership has been growing even as it has fallen across Europe and North America.

On Monday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, downplayed the connection between the media reports and Cardinal O'Brien's resignation, which the pope accepted under a norm of church law that says he had reached the normal retirement age of 75.

A statement issued by the media office of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland said Cardinal O'Brien had informed the pope some time ago of his intention to resign as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh as his 75th birthday approached on March 17 but that no date had been set.

The cardinal said in the statement: "The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013."

"Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God," he said. "For any failures, I apologize to all whom I have offended."

"I also ask God's blessing on my brother cardinals who will soon gather in Rome," the statement said, adding, "I will not join them for this conclave in person. I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me — but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor."

Cardinal O'Brien, whose office had initially said he would fly to Rome before the conclave, has been the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland since 1985, and was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. He was among the cardinals who attended the conclave that chose Benedict as John Paul's successor in 2005.

The main role of a cardinal is to elect a new pope and they remain eligible to vote under any circumstances, even if they have been excommunicated, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, the secretary for the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, said last week.

Ambrogio Piazzoni, a papal historian, told reporters last week that he could think of no examples of cardinals who refrained from voting for anything other than health reasons — or from the pressures of different governments in past years.

On Monday, Benedict changed the laws governing the conclave to allow cardinals to decide to move up the start date before the traditional 15-20 day waiting period after the papacy is vacant. He also met with three cardinals who had conducted a secret investigation into a scandal of leaked documents and ruled that the contents of their report would be known only to his successor — not to the cardinals entering the conclave.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.

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